Loan Round-Up: Dramatic debut for Ilias

Jack Bonham kept his ninth clean sheet of the season on Saturday as Carlisle United took a point from their trip to Stevenage in Sky Bet League Two. It was a game of very few chances, the best of which fell to the visiting Cumbrians, but in the end both sides had to settle for a point which does little for either’s hopes of making a Play-Off charge. Keith Curle’s side are now nine points outside the Play-Offs in 12th ahead of Saturday’s home game against struggling Forest Green Rovers.

Also in League Two, Ilias Chatzitheodoridis’ first league game won’t be one he forgets in a hurry after Cheltenham Town’s dramatic defeat at Mansfield Town on Saturday. Harry Pell and CJ Hamilton traded first-half goals before The Robins were reduced to ten men just before the break, Taylor Moore shown a straight red for an alleged elbow. The numbers were levelled up midway through the second-half as Hayden White’s shocking challenge on Ilias was punished with a red card. Elijah Adebayo then put The Robins ahead but the drama was far from over. Kane Hemmings and Hamilton turned things around in the final eight minutes, either side of Danny Wright’s dismissal, as Cheltenham slipped to a defeat which leaves them 17th in the table, eight points above the drop zone.

In Germany, Konstantin Kerschbaumer played the opening 45 minutes as DSC Arminia Bielefeld lost their final warm-up game ahead of the resumption of the 2.Bundesliga season. Friday’s opponents were Rot-Weiss Essen who The Bees played in pre-season a number of season’s ago. The opening goal came after 15 minutes before an audacious 50 yard effort straight after the restart from David Jansen settled things. DSC get back to league action on Wednesday evening as they host second-from-bottom SpVgg Greuther Fürth, looking to close an eight point gap on the promotion places.